I have been working with a studio on my invitation design for a month. They emailed me the proof on Monday & my jaw hit the floor when I saw it. It looks so very very far from the design I was going for, I couldn’t believe they would actually send me this proof.

They were provided with a large gallery of photos of the invite I was trying to duplicate with a couple minor changes. I’m running out of time to get these done. Should I assume they aren’t capable of creating the design & move on? If they are capable of doing what I want, why in the world would they have sent me such an atrocious proof?

I’m extremely disappointed in their service at this time. I have worked with this company twice in the past & thought i had a good rapport with them. If they can’t do the design then they should have told me that in the beginning. I am in a compromised position now.

They didn’t even get the main font right, the most essential element to the look of the invite! Wtf? They should be able to do this, right? Was the graphic designer just being lazy? If anyone is in the business or very experienced with this & could shed some light on what the hell happened here I’d be very appreciate!

@vess5: Tell them nicely what you like and what you’d like changed. Ask them if it is possible to get what you’d like. I’m all for honesty. Hopefully they’ll be honest with you and tell you whether it is feasible to create what you’d like. If not, start looking for a back up.

I had the same problem. I sent several examples and my designer came up with something that was totally different. It took several emails and calls back and forth but we did end up getting exactly what I wanted. They are used to people making changes and if I were you, I would print out the proof and circle the places that you want the changes to be made and give it to them. That is what I finally had to do and I love my invitations.

@MRS_Anderson0426: Thanks for telling me this. Maybe my expectations were too high for the first proof? Maybe they are fully expecting me to reply with changes? This wasn’t the case in my previous dealings with the company, I don’t think I had to make any corrections at all, so seeing this proof really took me by surprise. I’m now reminding myself that while I’m focused on the design they had to focus on that plus all the actual informational content.

@MoonlitMagnolia: Font was lawfully purchased so no, that isn’t part of the deal. My problem with the proof is not so much the art, it’s the more basic elements – the font being number one. I know they didn’t already have the font & had to purchase it & I’m wondering if they didn’t purchase the full catalog of said font. My terminology might be off, I don’t know that it’s called a “catalog” but I know there’s different options to add to your cart when shopping it.

Full font families can be pricey. But it’s very possible they don’t want to do a copycat of the design, because designers can get sued for that.

It’s hard to give you advice without seeing the inspiration and the proof itself to see how far everything is ‘off’. But I will tell you this, I work at a design company and we EXPECT changes to come back after a first round or a first proof.

Often it’s a miscommunication or the client visualizing something that they cannot quite articulate so we are left to mindread so to speak, what they are actually looking for.

It seems like you gave a pretty clear cut example of what you wanted, so without photos, I would just advise you to take a look at the things in the proof you do like, and ask them to please change the elements you don’t like. Please don’t tell them you just ‘don’t like it’, be specific. Say, ‘this font I would like to be a script font, I’d like it a few points larger’ etc. Specifics really really help the process along.

@jlc3: I’m such a spaz. Pretty much everything you explained and suggested in your repsonse was dead on.

They took my remarks and completely turned around the invitation and it’s fabulous now. I shouldn’t have been so upset by the first proof. It was just sooooo different than discussed and than the examples provided that I feared they just weren’t capable. But the reality is that I just didn’t know how this process works. I think she was giving me a base proof, fully exptecting changes from me before really fine tuning the design.